Newbie: Furniture project SU best practices?
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I won't say my process is 'best practice' but it works for me.
All parts I'd need to make in the shop are drawn as components (not groups) and identical ones or mirrored ones are instances of the same component. In the case of mirror images (left and right legs, left and right aprons, etc.) one instance is flipped to create the mirrored version. Joinery waits until the components are placed. For your end table I would start by drawing a leg component and then I would make copies, place them and flip them as needed. Then the intervening parts would be drawn in place to fit. Some folks prefer to draw the parts separately and then move them into place but I find that to be much too time consuming and more prone to errors.
Once all of the parts are drawn and the joinery is complete, I create the layers I'll want. For an end table that might be Aprons, Legs, Top, Drawer, Shelf or whatever parts you have. Then I would associate the various layers with the components in the model. (Do a search in the Help files for Layers and read what is said about using layers and associating them.)
I generally create an exploded view of the model as well as 3D and 2D views of the assembled model. To do that I copy (Ctrl+Move or Option+Move)the entire model off to one side and then drag the parts away from each other so they can all be seen. In most cases you don't need to drag all the components away from each other. It is enough to separate the parts of one side and perhaps the front.
Next I would make a scene showing a perspective view of the assembled model and scenes showing 2D views (front and side). Then I make scenes of the exploded views. You might make an exploded view with the top and drawer layers turned off so the carcass is clearly visible. Then make a scene showing just the drawer. Other scenes can be set up to show details of joinery as needed. Keep in mind there's little need to show every joint. One of each should be sufficient. You can turn off unneeded layers to help clear sightlines.
For some parts it might make sense to create 2D close up views of some parts. I might copy those components off to one side and make a copy so I can see, say the top and front in the same scene.
Dimensioning comes next. Since I use the Pro version of SketchUp, I do much of the dimensioning in LayOut but it can be done in SketchUp, too. Don't put your dimensioning inside of components because the dimensions will appear in all instances of those components resulting in a lot of redundancy. You can create layers for dimensions so you can make some of them invisible. As to how many dimension layers you make, that depends upon what you need to show and what you don't.
I know of some folks who would make the exploded views as a file separate from the assembled version but in my mind this is also too much work and creates potential for errors. By keeping the exploded and detail views in the same SKP file, if the model need to be changed the changes carry all the way through. If you make separate files you'll have to edit all of them to make sure the changes are carried through.
Hopefully that makes some sense.
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Dave: Excellent. That gives me the legup I need, I think. I'll work through that approach.
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@dadoing said:
I've been struggling up the initial learning curve with Sketchup.
I struggled up it and then wrote a tutorial so the next person wouldn't have a struggle.
http://www.MartinRinehart.com/models/tutorial/index.html
In the future I'll be adding a "send-me-money" feature, but that's not happened yet.
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Which reminds me...anyone have an I.O.U..rb
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Dave R, would you mind posting one of your skp files as an example? That would probably be the quickest way of actually seeing how you set your files up. Maybe post some pics of your projects, that would be cool too.
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I'm not sure why Dave didn't mention it, but he and Tim Killen have written some excellent articles and videos about SketchUp work-flow and furniture.
In particular, these 2 videos I thought were pretty good:
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I had no idea that Dave R was the Dave R of finewoodworking. Boy do I feel like a fool.
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Yeah, his picture makes him look young.
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My pic makes my ears and nose look big. I reality they are much smaller.
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@martinrinehart said:
I struggled up it and then wrote a tutorial so the next person wouldn't have a struggle.
http://www.MartinRinehart.com/models/tutorial/index.html
In the future I'll be adding a "send-me-money" feature, but that's not happened yet.Awewsome - thank you. I bookmarked it and plan to work through it carefully.
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Jim, thanks for the nice words and the links.
Fossa, nearly all of my models these days are done for others so I can't post them. You can see the results of some of the drawings I've done by downloading the plans I've done on Fine Woodworking's site. Here are a few I've done:
[]Arts and Crafts Display Case](http://store.taunton.com/onlinestore/item/arts-and-crafts-display-case-065120.html), Two Shaker Tables, Garrett Hack's Workbench, John White's New-Fangled Bench. there are others as well. You can also take a look at the cover articles for Issues #209 (Tools and Shops), 210 and 211.
I suppose I should update my avatar picture, huh?
By the way, I like your ears, there, Fossa. -
@dadoing said:
I've been struggling up the initial learning curve with Sketchup. I've decided to bear down and learn SU properly by drawing an endtable plan.
What is the best way to organize the Sketchup file for the main components of the endtable? Scenes? Layers? That's the part I can't seem to grasp. It makes sense to me to draw the six faces of the endtable in six different sub-places of the SU file, rather than all in one 3D image space. Would that be six scenes? Each face of course has different cabinet sub-components, too. Any pointers to get me learning in the right direction?
Sorry for hijacking the thread, back to your problem.
Some really great learning resources for the basics of sketchup are:
- the guys over at Go-2-School have tons of beginning sketchup vids and
- Googles youtube channel devoted to sketchup
Those 2 sources are where I got my sketchup start (and of course the SCF community)
for furniture related Sketchup there are:
- Finewoodworkings blog Design Click Build and
- Popular woodworking has a new cd out all about skektchup (its not free and I have not seen it so I can't comment on it)
I'm sure there are dozens of others in both categories but those are what I have used in the past
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@jim said:
I'm not sure why Dave didn't mention it, but he and Tim Killen have written some excellent articles and videos about SketchUp work-flow and furniture.
In particular, these 2 videos I thought were pretty good:
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/22911/a-fern-stand-demonstrating-my-drawing-process
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/24328/jeffersons-bookstand-another-workflow-exampleAwesome, thanks. I really like Dave's workflow for furniture. Makes a lot of good sense. Now, I mustget on to doing the family bookkeeping this morning! This Sketchup is a wonderful hobby in its own right, to expand my woodworking hobby. You folks are great help.
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The helpful replies got me started. Now I'm blogging my crawl up the Sketchup Woodworking curve in http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=183&t=27728 for those who might be interested.
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